Hudson Valley Rugs
Member
We have been knocking ourselves out for many years doing commercial carpet and janitorial cleaning. While the work has been fairly steady, since 2011, the rates have not budged even a penny. We find ourselves working for essentially minimum wage the past year or so.
Residential has been a nightmare. Advertising at $500 per month or more gets us about $200 worth of clicks that lead to no contact, another $200 worth of fraud from one or two competitors I consider mentally ill. About $100 worth of clicks that lead to perhaps $1,000 worth of work. You can't spend half your sales on advertising. We find most carpet to be <$2 per sf builder's grade crap some cheapskate want's cleaned. It is generally trashed. Residential is just not our focus at all.
Our bright spot has always been area rugs. I find my hourly rate to be more like $25-35 per hour and we are very careful with our advertising as to stay below the radar of competitors.
I am about to undertake a 250+ piece mailing for wholesale accounts. Then follow up with cold call personal visits about a week later. I don't want to get into specifics of who my targets are, but I will say where they are. About 150 in Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties in NY. About 100 in Bergen and Passaic counties in NJ. I have a list of about another 100 NJ targets who will launch a month later after the first batch. This includes parts of Essex, Morris, Hudson and a little bit of Sussex counties. I have more distant plans for NYC that may not launch until late 2019 or 2020. Yes, I know Rug Renovating can squash me like a bug... but this little bug is a survivor, maybe not thriving...
The point is, I have to get off the driveway and out of the portable garage. The volume is going to grow, or 2019 will be my last year cleaning.
My secret weapon is rapid cleaning of synthetic rugs, one that might be $3-5 per sf in purchase price. I call it "Mexican Artillery" and it is not up for public discussion. Nor are my water saving devices or any other techniques I have been developing to increase efficiency and lower costs.
While one makes a lot more money on cleaning wool rugs that cost $20-40+ per sf, there is a huge number of cheap rugs. As for tufted rugs, I have very little good to say about them. I'm the one who breaks the news to the client that they are essentially disposable.
I am also a rug dealer online. That business just started six months ago, and that is not necessarily part of the deal, the margins are really good. If I leave the cleaning business, I will have time to grow rug sales.
If this is of interest, we can arrange an in person meeting in any of the areas I just mentioned. Thanks.
Peter Hewel
Residential has been a nightmare. Advertising at $500 per month or more gets us about $200 worth of clicks that lead to no contact, another $200 worth of fraud from one or two competitors I consider mentally ill. About $100 worth of clicks that lead to perhaps $1,000 worth of work. You can't spend half your sales on advertising. We find most carpet to be <$2 per sf builder's grade crap some cheapskate want's cleaned. It is generally trashed. Residential is just not our focus at all.
Our bright spot has always been area rugs. I find my hourly rate to be more like $25-35 per hour and we are very careful with our advertising as to stay below the radar of competitors.
I am about to undertake a 250+ piece mailing for wholesale accounts. Then follow up with cold call personal visits about a week later. I don't want to get into specifics of who my targets are, but I will say where they are. About 150 in Putnam, Rockland and Westchester counties in NY. About 100 in Bergen and Passaic counties in NJ. I have a list of about another 100 NJ targets who will launch a month later after the first batch. This includes parts of Essex, Morris, Hudson and a little bit of Sussex counties. I have more distant plans for NYC that may not launch until late 2019 or 2020. Yes, I know Rug Renovating can squash me like a bug... but this little bug is a survivor, maybe not thriving...
The point is, I have to get off the driveway and out of the portable garage. The volume is going to grow, or 2019 will be my last year cleaning.
My secret weapon is rapid cleaning of synthetic rugs, one that might be $3-5 per sf in purchase price. I call it "Mexican Artillery" and it is not up for public discussion. Nor are my water saving devices or any other techniques I have been developing to increase efficiency and lower costs.
While one makes a lot more money on cleaning wool rugs that cost $20-40+ per sf, there is a huge number of cheap rugs. As for tufted rugs, I have very little good to say about them. I'm the one who breaks the news to the client that they are essentially disposable.
I am also a rug dealer online. That business just started six months ago, and that is not necessarily part of the deal, the margins are really good. If I leave the cleaning business, I will have time to grow rug sales.
If this is of interest, we can arrange an in person meeting in any of the areas I just mentioned. Thanks.
Peter Hewel
